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Iraq admits growing deadly biological arsenal

By
DAN CHARLES in
WASHINGTON DC

Microbiologists in Baghdad have admitted growing cultures of some of
the most deadly organisms on Earth for military purposes. Their stocks of
biological warfare agents included the organisms that cause anthrax, botulism
and gas gangrene.

Investigators from the UN found none of these stocks when they visited
Iraq last week. Iraqi officials told the UN delegation that the biological
agents were destroyed in August 1990, before Iraq was attacked by allied
forces during the Gulf War.

The UN inspectors spent five days at Salman Pak, a plant 35 kilometres
south of Baghdad where much of the research took place. David Kelly, who
led the delegation, says that Salman Pak was fitted with a 150-litre fermenting
vessel which could be filled to capacity twice a week with a deadly brew.
The plant also included an aerosol testing chamber, where the lethal effects
of spraying biological agents into the air could be studied. Experiments
were carried out with rabbits, mice and guinea pigs, says Kelly.

Other nations, including Britain and the US, have similar laboratories.
Both countries say that their research is defensive – aimed at developing
vaccines or protective clothing to defend against biological attacks by
an adversary. The Biological Warfare Convention, which Iraq has signed,
allows such defensive research but bans the development of biological weapons.

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Kelly, who is head of microbiology at the Chemical and Biological Defence
Establishment at Porton Down, in Wiltshire, says that Iraq offered no evidence
that its research was specifically defensive in nature. There was apparently
no effort to develop vaccines or protective clothing, he says.

Salman Pak was bombed by allied forces during the Gulf War, and many
of its buildings were torn down by Iraq before the inspectors arrived. The
delegation did not visit any of the other sites in Iraq that are suspected
of carrying out research on biological weapons. Kelly says that further
visits are planned.

The Iraqi officials told the UN delegation that they never built weapons
such as missiles or bombs to spread the diseases among an enemy. According
to Raymond Zalinskas, a specialist on biological warfare at the University
of Maryland, it has proved far more difficult to build the delivery vehicles
for biological agents than to grow the agents themselves. Japan, for example,
possessed biological agents ‘of unsurpassed virulence’ during the Second
World War, but ‘could never do anything with them’. Biological weapons have
generally not been used because their effects are slow and often uncontrollable,
and they might return to haunt the side that released them.

Bombing Salman Pak could have had terrifying results for the local population
if large stocks of anthrax spores had still been stored there, says Kelly.
In contrast to most biological agents, anthrax spores can stay virulent
for years.

The UN has barred Iraq from doing any further research that could be
used for biological warfare. In the future, Iraq will be permitted to conduct
research only for medical purposes, working with diseases that are endemic
to the region. Kelly says that the UN inspectors are still trying to find
a way of making sure that Iraq does not covertly carry on prohibited research.